Gregg is signing a national letter of intent today with Baylor's acrobatics and tumbling team on the first day of the NCAA's early signing period.

Acrobatics and tumbling is a new sport, and Baylor is one of only six schools in the country with a varsity team.

Gregg will be at the top of three-level human pyramids and tossed as high as 20 feet when she competes for the Bears.

She was essentially recruited to be thrown in the air.

"I didn't know it was a college sport until the Baylor coaches talked to me at a cheerleading clinic," Gregg said. "It means the world to me that it is."

Acrobatics and tumbling is part of a shift to move cheerleading to its own field. It separated the athleticism in competitive cheerleading from the traditional skirts and pompons.

None of the athletes on the acrobatics and tumbling team are is on Baylor's cheerleading squad, and the athletes consider the sport closer to gymnastics than cheerleading.

The acrobatic and tumbling Their uniforms are similar to volleyball attire. Teams compete against each other with a scoring system similar to gymnastics.

"There isn't any 'rah, rah,' and 'go team' stuff in routines," said Gregg, who has been a varsity cheerleader at East Central since she was a freshman. "There isn't any cheering. It's a competitive sport."

Because there are only six varsity acrobatics and tumbling teams, including BCS schools Maryland and Oregon, it isn't recognized as an official NCAA sport. There's a proposal for the NCAA to recognize it as an "emerging sport."

Baylor's acrobatics and tumbling team members are treated as student-athletes. The team has 12 scholarships divided between among its 35 athletes.

Baylor is the only college in Texas that offers acrobatics as a varsity sport, but Bears coach KarryÖ Forsythe said she expects that to change.

"There's a huge need to develop this sport," Forsythe said. "I think there can be as many as 40 collegiate acrobatics and tumbling teams in five years."

Gregg competed in gymnastics from the time she was age 5 to when she started high school but switched to cheerleading because of time constraints and burnout.

She said she enjoyed competitive cheerleading more because it's more of a team sport.